Hi,

Down: The translation from north to down or up has never made much sense to me, but: Couldn't "down" simply be the direction away from the speaker?

Month: The October's night doesn't seem to fit the text at all. Night doesn't bring a sight; it's dark. It's the first light of the new day that we curse for revealing the disaster that occured during the preceding night. But what wording for dawn or light can be misheard as "October's Night"?

Poem: What some people find so irritating is the poetic image, I think. The "me-thinks"-es make the build-up more sinister. See the original poem, imagining them at first happily going about their fishery business. It makes the disaster unavoidable, as we can't stop the song before it the storm strikes: The first person telling us about it has already witnessed the whole event, so there's nothing we can do. We can only watch helplessly as the ships fight the storm and eventually go under.
I wonder if the whole poem would go well as a song.

                                                                Mysha